#like only one of my Mics has a lying down pose so I don't look like I'm army crawling when I sit down for a second

[black-and-yellow]

something to think about

read more for avatar and world list:

Avatars worn:

Midnight by TalkativeDrew Shouta Aizawa! by TalkativeDrew Present Mic by SuccMyPiano Presentation Microphone by Yoyoco

Worlds (in order):

Three Lions Pub by Tony_Lewis Mirrim by IgbarVonSquid Happy Hill Dog Park by Dr.Kim Concrete Jungle Bar and Grill by RadishFriend (that one was a bit strange) The Greatest World Ever Made by IgbarVonSquid Wonka Experience VR by Starport55

[i-lov-them-beans]

Theories: Colour Wheel and the Orange Side

Ok, so, we have the colour wheel theory. It's essentially been confirmed now by the new flower T-shirt design that it's real, and specifically the T-shirt seems to confirm there'll be only one more side, which is the orange side. I'm not gonna mention the T-shirt again throughout the rest of this, it's just that's what kicked me off to finally write this lol.

The premise of the colour wheel theory, of course, is that each side corresponds to a colour, and the sides can be grouped into pairs that are both opposite in terms of what aspect they represent, and also opposite colours. That's all dandy and nice, right? But alas! There are some problems with the theory, aren't there? Namely, with people disagreeing on who should be paired with who.

For example, one popular take is that Deceit is Patton's opposite. The reasoning being that while Patton represents morality, Deceit is often seen as being not very moral. Patton strongly supports honesty, while Deceit is literally Deceit.

However, other people say that Deceit is actually Logan's opposite. Due to the fact that in lying, Deceit goes against facts, which would seem to go against Logan represents.

So? What version of the theory is right then? I have read so many colour wheel theory posts, each arguing a different way, and they pretty much ALL seem to make good points. They all seem as reasonable as each other. I would have no idea how to tell which one seemed more accurate than the another.

Which is the problem. There's no actual clear way to cut them up into one single system of opposites - there's too many different possibilities for there to be one unanimous theory based on opposites.

Not to mention that there's stretching going on with all of them with what colour they are in order to fit them as opposite colours, or sometimes just straight up ignoring opposite colours (as with versions that put Virgil as opposite of Logan or Patton) making it even more difficult to figure out which one makes the most sense.

Which is why I have a new, slightly altered theory:

The sides can still be grouped into pairs. But instead of opposites, the pairs are based on compliments. I.e., pairs of sides whose functions are similar and could work together. Since opposite colours are also called complimentary colours, this still works thematically with the colour wheel theory.

Specifically, I was thinking that the sides would be paired based on them being two versions of essentially the same aspect, except where one is [viewed by Thomas as] immoral, and the other is not immoral. I also found that with this system the sides fit perfectly into sets of opposites colours.

So, who goes with who now?

Well, the obvious place to start is with Roman and Remus. The two are already in canon posed as being two halves of the same side, with one being good and the other bad. Specifically, Remus represents a part of creativity which Thomas is concerned would be harmful to the world, henceforth immoral, whereas Roman's creativity Thomas has no moral qualms with. Their colours are the complimentary colours red and green, of course.

Next I would argue that Virgil and Deceit are compliments. Aside from the fact that they obviously have history, Virgil's job is to protect Thomas, as we all know. Deceit, regardless of how you feel about him, mainly represents self-preservation, as any sympathetic-Deceit fan will tell you. Especially with him using lying to achieve that goal, Deceit's aspect is definitely about protecting Thomas too. The difference? Thomas finds Deceit morally reprehensible, whereas Virgil, although not exactly an enjoyable side to experience, is not exactly doing anything immoral. Their colours? Purple and yellow, exact opposites. Next.

So now we come to the final pair, which by colours is Patton and Orange. Which means we have to go into my theory about what the Orange side represents. So, who's the Orange side?

I think Orange is Anger. I first started thinking about anger being represented in the series last year, while I was headcanoning about Patton. I was thinking about how, since he represents emotions, that must mean he includes anger; I was thinking how it would be interesting to see that in Patton since we never normally see him like that (I like seeing stuff we don't normally see in characters). It didn't occur to me back then that anger could be represented by a separate side, because since it's an emotion, I assumed it had to be represented by Patton. But then: Remus was introduced. Dun dun dun. Literally another version of an aspect we already have a side for. And later, when I saw other people talking about how Orange could be anger, it clicked: Anger could be a separate, dark side the same way Remus is. So my main reason for theorising Orange as Anger.

Other reasons why Orange would be anger is that A. Orange is an angry colour (I've always associated it with annoyance and frustration), and B. Someone suggested a theory that all the dark sides were hinted in the Christmas video. Deceit's hint was first and I can't remember it but I'm p sure it did make sense, Remus' was second and was the "Naked Aunt Patty" line, which was literally referenced in Remus' song sequence in DWIT. And the third hint that this theory proposed was in the episode's conclusion, when Thomas says "that's never constructive. that's destructive" and then pauses weirdly, and the idea was that the next side has something to do with destruction. If this Christmas hint theory is true, then "destruction" fits quite neatly with anger.

So, Orange is Anger and I've already linked him to Patton in the previous paragraph, but let's just tidy up the loose ends. I can definitely see how Anger can be seen as an immoral emotion, especially from Thomas' POV, he tries not to get angry at people. Whereas the emotions Patton represents Thomas doesn't see as immoral. Even sadness and depression, although unpleasant to experience, just like with Virgil they're not immoral. However there's also the fact that Patton represents morality itself. Obviously, that's not gonna be immoral. How does Orange tie into that as an "immoral morality" though? Well, Anger can be a part of morality. Have you ever seen something absolutely awful, and gotten angry that that's happening? Of course you have, you're on tumblr (lol). Just look at any activism; although yes, inherently it's driven by a desire to make the world a better place, I would say a large portion of activism is also driven specifically by anger. It's a special kind of anger you feel, as an activist, too. Idk exactly how to describe it. But activism, morality and anger are definitely intertwined. And to top it all off? Mid-orange and light blue are slap-bang opposites of eachother. Thank you. *drops mic*

"But, wait a minute-" I hear you ask, as I'm already bending down to pick the mic back up cause I wasn't finished talking yet anyway- "where's Logan in all this? You're phrasing it like it's a perfect theory, yet you haven't even mentioned Logan!"

...Well I'm glad you asked, tumblr user ipissmypantsdaily*!

*if there is actually a tumblr user called that and they see this, hi, I hope you're not even in the TS fandom so this joke is even more stupid. Idk how you would have found this post though *shrugs*

Actually it's not that exciting. In my theory Logan doesn't have a pair. The main reason is literally just that there's no one left to pair him with and all the others work too perfectly to rearrange them lol. However, my explanation is that he wouldn't fit in a pair anyway: he's a fairly morally neutral side. He provides logic, which can reach morally good or bad conclusions, curiosity, which could be curiosity in anything (Intrulogical much?) (although it seems it's mostly harmless in Thomas' case), and apathy, which seems to be in the form of disinterest (that's the one where someone provides a neutral, unbiased third-party opinion) mainly. Obviously, Thomas tried to use him for good, but ultimately he seems like a fairly neutral/morally mixed side.

Anyway, that's my current hypothesis on Sanders Sides. I'm really proud of it, I was really excited when I thought it all up. I hope you enjoyed it! To round it all up, here's an actual colour wheel with the sides' names on it:

Something I didn't even realise til making that actually, is that all the pairs are really equally spread across the colour wheel, too. Nice.

Someone's probably going to find a million and one problems with it as soon as I post this, but oh well. That happens I guess, lol

uhhh... bye 👋